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Wildlife presenter and FSU member Anneka Svenska was told to take a “thinking skills course”, accept a police record or face arrest after two police officers turned up at her door. Ms Svenska was left “shaking” when officers appeared at her home in Kent to inform her that she was the subject of a complaint from MBR Acres — the only UK site that breeds dogs for animal testing — after she posted a video online in January criticising the way the beagle testing site disposes of dead animals. The company accused her of “making false allegations”. Police alleged that she had committed an offence under Section 179 of the Online Safety Act. Introduced by the last Conservative government, the provision makes it an offence, punishable by up to 51 weeks in prison, to knowingly spread false information likely to cause harm. The FSU warned while the legislation was going through Parliament that it could be weaponised in precisely this way to silence legitimate political speech. We were right. Ms Svenska sought legal advice and refused to accept the “community resolution”, which would have required her to complete two online thinking skills courses within two weeks and would have seen her recorded as an “offender”, potentially appearing on a DBS check. In the end, the police dropped the case and no further action was taken. Speaking to The Telegraph, Ms Svenska said: “I was definitely intimidated by the police; I was actually shaking underneath. This, to me, was an absolute violation.” Lord Young of Acton, General Secretary of the Free Speech Union, said: “The Online Safety Act was proposed as a way of keeping children safe online. “Instead, overzealous police officers are using it to spare large companies the blushes of criticism from campaigners. Thankfully, Anneka had the good sense to reject this community disposal. “Otherwise, she would have been saddled with this record for doing nothing more than exercising her democratic rights to free speech.” Read more below and watch our video 👇